Reddit is testing a new Reddit Reviews option, which will help users find relevant product recommendations and info in the app by converting relevant Reddit comments into dedicated overviews.
As shown in these example screens, Reddit Reviews will use artificial intelligence to collate information on products, sourcing relevant references from comments and mentions across the app. The tool will then present comments and upvotes in a centralized review format, which should make it easier for users to gather context about a prospective purchase.
As explained by Reddit: “Lived experience shows up across Reddit communities: in r/skincareaddiction, people share what they’ve tried for dry skin, and in r/espresso, baristas and home brewers compare their setups. These exchanges show how a product can work for different people and what tradeoffs they consider. Reddit Reviews uses AI to both organize these conversations where people describe their product experiences, and to surface the nuance, context, and connection to the original conversation.”
Reddit said these reviews may also include images, prices and purchase links when they’re supplied by brand and retailer catalogs.
“To go deeper, people can browse all comments about a product, using topic filters derived from Reddit conversations to focus on their questions,” Reddit said. “Clicking on a comment lets them read the original discussion, ask a follow-up question, or join the community for more advice. For people considering alternatives, the review also highlights products people commonly compare.”
To find a review, Reddit users can search for a product or category in the app. Products with a review page will be highlighted in the predictive answers to the query.
Reddit said it will initially test the option “with a set of frequently discussed products and categories.”
Reddit added that these reviews will only include information gleaned from organic conversations within Reddit communities, and that these recommendations will not include paid placement of any kind.
At least not yet.
Reddit is working to find more ways to get people coming directly to its app for insights because its referral traffic from search engines has been rapidly declining.
Amid rising use of AI chatbots for discovery, Reddit had become a critical source of information due to its user-generated, community-voted listings, which allowed chatbots and search engines to offer direct insights into consumer experiences.
But Google has been putting more emphasis on AI overviews, which provide an AI-generated summary of these notes within search results, while ChatGPT has also reduced its reliance on Reddit data. As a result, Reddit has suffered a big loss in terms of search referrals.
In the company’s Q3 performance update published earlier this month, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said that the company’s search traffic dropped by more than 1 million referrals on average per week in October.
Given this, Reddit is working to build more valuable tools to drive direct traffic. The company is also experimenting with locking down more of its information, making it only available to logged-in users.
Reddit Reviews is another step in this direction as the platform looks for ways to maintain the value of its app.
